Jul 15 10
Mobile Exercise Tracking H1 2010
Document Control
Mobile Exercise Tracking
Author
Ze Stuart
Next Version
30th June 2010, will be version 4
Changelog
Winter 2010 v3
| Added | Demoted |
| Extensive Augmented Reality |
Nokia Sports Tracker
|
|
Glympse
|
|
| RunKeeper |
Summer 2009 v2
| Added | Removed |
| iPhone and Nike+ iPod |
Nokia Vine
|
|
Google Android
|
|
| Reccomendations |
Winter 2008 v1
original
“Come with me if you want to live.”
Since the short-lived summer of 2009, the recession has bitten and taken a chunk out of all things interesting as companies give in and tighten their metaphorical belts. Where this fails the user is in helping us tighten our belts: Nokia have sold SportsTracker, the best-known, most functional exercise tracking package that at the height of its life was packaged with a wireless heart rate monitor. Nokia haven’t published a reason, and there has been nothing official set about the future of the software, meaning that recommending it is much more difficult.
The upshot of this rationing is the imagination poured into what can be done with existing hardware. Losing popularity are the SportsTracker style applications, replaced with Augmented Reality.
Ever since the audience of Terminator was shown through the eyes of the T1, a section of the population has had their imagination captured, kidnapped and ransomed by how wonderful it would be to have ‘superfluous’ data superimposed on their vision. The T1 has information about targets, and small white text on the background.
Fortunately for us, the coders who had their imagination kidnapped wanted to know where things like their nearest coffee house is, so in the immortal words of the T1, come with me if you want to live…
On the iPhone 3GS
Leading the way on this most famous and favourite of shallow platforms, is the application WorkSnug. Currently only available for London, opening this application and holding the phone in your line of sight shows you immediately, where, amongst the maze of streets, signs hover indicating the distance and direction of your grail:
These signs can be prodded with a chubby finger to reveal yet more information, showing just how easy it is to walk from where you are to where you want to be. (This includes tying in with Google Maps to route you to your destination.) The unique selling point of WorkSnug is however that it claims to only list quiet places to go, suitable for work, or at least provide a rating.
There is a slew of apps in the AppStore that provide this service, but this is by far the most polished, and if you’re London located, most useful, and so far has led to me discovering three new coffee shops a pleasant walk from my house.
A more traditional device, with a technological bent, is Theodolite by Craig Hunter. Again, you hold the phone in front of you, and again it calls on the accelerometer, compass and GPS to work out where you are and what direction you’re facing. This time instead of cafes, you get a view that our now familiar T1 would be, well, more familiar with:
The most recent version will even let you record two points, and then calculate the distance between them, and allows for triangulation of a third object.
Whilst neither of these applications provide the acute technical data that SportsTracker provides, they both make walking a more interesting business: one by using a carrot (in the form of a cup of coffee) to incentivise the walker to their destination, the other by allowing the walker to log detailed information about various points along the way.
For the person more interested in calorie counting, the Nike+ module covered in the last issue is still unbeatable for its simplicity. You can be quantifying your walk within a couple of minutes of shredding the packaging on the Nike+ module, probably without reading the instructions.
Google Android
Whilst Apple were playing coy and banning all concepts of augmented reality (one has to wonder, really) Google were actively encouraging it. Their best known is Street View: a neatly stitched collection of images that allow someone to move down the streets of the world, without leaving their computer. This was ported to both the iPhones and the Android phones, but the Androids were the first to tie in with a compass: you could stand outside a shop, and just by pointing your phone at the shop see it through the digital window.
Not immeadiately useful, but a step in the right direction: a search result in Google Maps can be seen before setting out, allowing the walker to already know where they are headed before leaving the door.
Their latest approach, being trialed mainly the US, is to provide an establishment with a barcode that they can publish (in an advert, for example), that can be scanned with the Android phone to provide an immediate link to the establishment in Google Maps. A couple of screen prods and a walking route is immediately visible (complete with spoken instructions in Northern America).
In terms of available applications, the SportsTracker clone Google My Tracks is still being developed and is an excellent choice. Recently I walked into the centre of Oxford and learned that I walk at an average speed of 4.5 mph, over a distance of three miles.
borrowed from
Crucially, the Google Nexus One I was using has the battery life to do this, take photos (which have their location recorded) and listen to music over Bluetooth, and still be useful after (my iPhone would have needed a little rest).
Following on from MyTracks is runstar (www.runstar.se). Unlike MyTracks, which is more of a passive, data logger with sharing, runstar aims to help you achieve fitness goals (and promises that “anyone can be a runstar”).
More aggressive, with words like ‘Workout’ and ‘Results’ peppering the interface, it looks great and works well, bringing a bit of iPhone-esque shine to the Android OS. The developer also promises to offer challenges and shared goals soon, and I think the shared goals will be particularly interesting, allowing you to see who has done the best so far:
Rounding out the list for Android is RunKeeper. Just as Juliet postulated on the fragrance of a rose, so must you postulate on the meaning of the word run, for what is it if not a brisk (at best) walk? Once past the intimidating name, it is a superb application. Like the old Nokia SportsTracker, and Google’s own MyTracks, your walk can be saved to the internet, and viewed both there and on the handset after. It is preloaded with a plethora of pass-times: walking, running, cycling, swimming (for the brave!). During exercise, a simple screen shows a history of pace and current pace, distance and calories burnt. A premium service will also score your exercise for you, alerting you of improvements (or drops!) in performance, although this is done through the website.
For those wanting to share their live locatoin with friends, the innovative Glympse (http://www.glympse.com/) is also available. This broadcasts your location to a secure, select list of people, letting you show off an interesting route, or just let them follow you if lost. (It is also available for the iPhone, but not as functional due to the application quitting when another of the phone’s functions is used). A new feature supported by Glympse is entering destination for your Glympse. This allows the viewer(s) to see an ETA based on your current speed (I recently used it when walking to meet a friend, so he could see when to leave his house).
Gylmpse is also available for the iPhone, but once you’ve decided you want to do something other than ‘sharing your where’ you have to start your sharing all over again, and it breaks the tranmission.
Round-up
Much has changed, and much has stayed the same over the last six months. The biggest change, it would seem, is the change from stick to carrot in terms of encouraging people onto their feet. Whereas previously the software available was aimed at the serious sportsman, now there is a definite change in direction towards software that makes walking more interesting, whether by make a large number of choices available or allowing the walker to share their walk with others. Thus the virtual carrot is placed before the walker (almost literally, with applications like WorkSnug) and the walk can commence.
My pick of tracking solutions is RunKeeper, for both its simplicity and included list of exercises. (It just informed me that I burnt 365 calories walking to Oxford’s The Missing Bean to finish writing this, in 56:13, with an average pace of 17:59 per mile over 3.13 miles).
Jun 18 10
Phones for walking
Not only can you phone while walking, your phone can also record your walking ; we have just received the second review of this fromn Ze Stuart.
